About the Museum

Alissa Rupp, FAIA, Acting Director

Alissa Rupp is an architect, planner and facilitator, and is a leader in the design of places for community building, informal education and lifelong learning. She works with the conviction that we can improve public life through the serious work of creating spaces where art, nature, culture, and especially play, intersect. Her values include equity, universal access, interdisciplinary thinking, collaboration and co-creation.

Alissa’s early career was forged in children’s museums; her positions on staff at the Boston and Seattle Children’s Museums led her to pursue a career in architecture and exhibit development. Since then, her goal has been to serve the field of Informal Education through design, strategic planning and thoughtfully executed capital projects. She has worked with many spaces dedicated to kids and families, including: KidsQuest Children’s Museum in Bellevue, Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia, Discovery Children’s Museum in Las Vegas, Kidspace in Pasadena, Kids on 8! and Run, 2, 3! in Hong Kong, and Bay Club Kids’ Zone in Mumbai.

She is pleased to return to Seattle Children’s Museum in an acting capacity, and to support this organization that was so important to her when she first arrived in the Pacific Northwest. She has confidence in the future of the museum, and looks forward to its re-emergence on the city’s arts and culture landscape.

Andrew Mathews, President, Board of Trustees

Andy Mathews is a commercial lawyer with years of experience providing pragmatic and outcome-oriented legal and compliance advice. He has led the legal departments of two different Seattle-area real estate companies, including in his current role as General Counsel of John L. Scott Real Estate. He also provides pro bono legal services to refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. as a volunteer attorney with a prominent immigrant rights organization.

Andy joined the Board of Trustees in 2017, and was elected president in 2020, just as the pandemic emerged. The museum closed to protect staff and visitors, and to comply with city and state guidelines, but Andy has fond memories of bringing his two kids to the Museum in the early 2010’s and looks forward to welcoming back the next generation of young visitors as the Museum reopens.